Dozens dead, including 22 children, as Israel launches wave of strikes on Gaza
Dozens are dead, including 22 children, after multiple Israeli attacks on hospitals in Gaza, Palestine’s health ministry reports.
Listen to this article
At least nine missiles hit the European Hospital in southern Palestine overnight, which Israel claims is a “Hamas command centre.”
Hamas rejects the allegation it is using hospitals and civilian homes as military bases.
It comes after a well-known Palestinian journalist was killed in an attack on a separate hospital located in Khan Younis, the health ministry said.
Hassan Aslih, who has hundreds of thousands of social media followers and who Israel has accused of working with Hamas, was in hospital recovering from a previous air strike.
Read more: New immigration measures will fuel ‘exodus’ of migrant nurses
Wednesday morning saw at least 48 people, including more than 20 children, killed in Israeli attacks on homes in northern Gaza, according to the Indonesian Hospital in Jabalia.
Children in Gaza are “barely staying alive” and having to "eat grass and animal fodder" to survive, a global children's charity boss told LBC on Tuesday.
Rachel Cummings, Humanitarian Director of Save the Children, stressed that food, clean water, and medicine had become almost impossible to find for families in the war-torn territory, as the crisis in the area continues to deepen.
Speaking to LBC’s Andrew Marr, Ms Cummings said: "Children are starving in Gaza. There isn't any food, there isn't enough clean water. Children are getting sick. And we're deeply, deeply concerned about the impact that this is going to have on children — a whole generation of children."
Since Israel launched its assault on Gaza in the wake of the October 7 attack, the region has been plunged into a humanitarian catastrophe.
The United Nations and other aid agencies have repeatedly warned that parts of the region are on the brink of famine, with efforts to get aid in facing delays, restrictions, and security risks.
Describing what her teams were seeing on the ground, Ms Cummings said: "Women come to the clinic that we're running with their children and describe how they're existing and staying alive by meagreing out these small, small food portions — bulking food out with grass, with animal fodder.”
"People are desperate and people are literally barely staying alive and doing what they can."
The charity boss said some parents are going to extreme lengths just to stop their children from feeling hunger.
“We’ve had reports from people we’ve talked to in the communities and in our clinics… they’re resorting to all kinds of coping mechanisms which no one should have to cope with — just to make the sense of being full for their children.”
More than 61,000 people have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza, the vast majority women and children.